reacting

I find myself around a lot of people now that I have returned to school, and thus have a chance for observation. It seems like it is very easy to become stuck in our frustration. We find ourselves not liking something, and despite attempts by others to make it better, we get stuck in our frustration. Like with my little brother: we picked him up from school because he didn't like the lunch there. He was frustrated. Despite the fact that we picked him up and took him somewhere, he became stuck in a grumbling unhappy mode.

Why? We have a choice in how we react to situations. Is it really so difficult to switch to seeing the good? To being happy? Maybe this depends on what we expose ourselves to on a day to day basis. Basically, what I aspire to is the following poem by Hafiz:

God and I
have become
like two giant
fat people

living
on a
tiny boat.

We keep
bumping
into each other
and

l
a
u
g
h
i
n
g
.